Regina Cohen - April 18, 1982

Religion in Camp

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What did you do? Go back to the barrack?

Was--went back to the barrack. They were very happy to see, and she'd say, "???, she's here again, ???." It was just--you know how fate sometimes has it? You've got nobody with you and you wonder if you try to survive--there's--they've got to be somewhere, but you can't see them right now. It was just as if I had made up my mind to take my chances--I don't want to go and die in a gas chamber because I realized already what's, what's happening. I knew the stench, I knew where they're going, I've seen bodies. And uh, on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah of 1944, I really didn't believe that there was a God. A transport of children--I mean just children, from three to whatever age--were taken and the screams were so pathetic. And I didn't really come out and say, "If there is a God, where in the hell are you?"

How did you know it was Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah?

Because we were obs...we were fasting.

You were fasting.

Mm-hm. Yeah, we were fasting. And they were laughing at us and what they gave us to break the fast was something very salty, and it was so hot we couldn't find water.